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Signs of progress for Savannah High football program

While the school is mostly empty, a beautiful mess fills the Savannah High gym these days.

Strewn across the floor near the walls are dozens of air mattresses. On top of them blankets and pillow are scattered. Every few feet another bag spills over with clothes, some worn, some not.

It might all look like stuff that was left behind. But it's actually a sign of progress, a promising symbol of where SHS football might finally be going.

Savannah High is holding its own football camp this year. For nearly two weeks, 44 players and the coaching staff are sleeping in the school's gym and spending their days together in workouts, practices, film sessions and team meetings.

That might not sound terribly unusual. Most teams have camp at this time of year, many at their school.

But for a Blue Jacket program that has won a total of five games in the last three seasons, it's something different. And it just might be a new start in a new direction, showing how far ahead the team is from this time a year ago.

"It's like night and day,'' said second-year coach Charlie Brown, who played six seasons in the NFL with the Redskins and Falcons. "Everyone's very excited and the tempo has been good. The kids have really come out and responded, which is a huge difference.''

Last year, Brown arrived at Savannah High on the third day of practice and was behind before he got started.

This season, his summer workouts began after an off-season lifting program that drew 45 kids or roughly three times as many as a year ago. They are also being run within the strict order Brown has brought from his professional background, an approach that can be doubled now with the addition of Edwin Bailey to the SHS staff.

Bailey, who played 11 seasons for the Seattle Seahawks and was the offensive line coach at Savannah State last year, is helping his longtime friend officially as an assistant but realistically as a co-head coach.

That makes two former NFL players, a combined 17 years of professional experience, on one high school coaching staff. And if that would be an advantage for any program, it is an even greater step forward for one that has often lacked proper leadership.

"We actually feel like we can compete for a championship this year because we know we've got the coaching now,'' senior fullback Vincent Gardner said. "We know these guys have the insight to lead us in the right direction. Why wouldn't we want to listen to Pro Bowl players who know what it takes to get to the next level?''

For Savannah High, the next level up is not enough this year. Brown is hoping to go beyond that and be one of the better teams in the city right away, even with 15 freshmen and only nine seniors on his roster.

He has introduced the West Coast offense and says he has three players who are good enough to be his starting quarterback. With the addition of Bailey, he is able to do more teaching off of film, especially for individual positions, and already sees more depth and effort than he did a year ago.

He even hopes a new look might help recapture Savannah High's football past.

After talking with alumni and looking through old scrapbooks, Brown is bringing back the traditional Blue Jacket uniforms - white helmets, jerseys and pants with multiple blue stripes - in the hope of further connecting his players to the program they are trying to revive.

"We are going to bring back Savannah High football,'' Brown said. "I am so focused on what we're trying to do here, to establish our own personality, who we are and how we're going to win. That can only happen with everybody working hard and that's what I'm used to doing.

"Right now I don't know what this team is capable of. But if they give 100 percent with the coaching we can give them, the outcome will be positive.''

So far, before a game has been played and less than a week into practice, it already is.

And for Savannah High football, such a good start on such a solid base could be the first of several successes returning to the program.

To catch a thief

They're trying to turn around everything at Savannah High this football season, even a bad experience before the season actually started.

On Thursday, the Blue Jackets were continuing their football camp. After morning meetings and lifting sessions, players and coaches went out onto the practice field in the afternoon. And while they were there, an intruder went into the school's gym, where the team is spending nights during camp.

He rummaged through players' belongings, taking money, cell phones, CDs, a video camera, a DVD player and even underwear. According to SHS assistant coach Edwin Bailey, the thief also urinated on the gym floor before fleeing.

"It was so disrespectful to the school and to these players who are out here working hard and trying to make themselves better to come in here and do something like that,'' Bailey said. "What was taken was a lot of stuff these kids or their parents worked very hard for. It was kind of a quiet night after that.''

But it got better right before it ended.

As the team was preparing for bed, they heard a noise in the gym. The same thief had returned.

Chased by several players, he ran into the locker room, where he was cornered, subdued and held until the police arrived.

"They gave him a pretty good spanking, too,'' head coach Charlie Brown said of his players. "But we got him out of there and took him to the coach's office.''

And now the Blue Jackets are seeing the incident as something that can take them forward, another sign that the program's luck is changing.

"You never know what brings a team together, but this could be the perfect thing,'' said Bailey. "I do know that practice was a little more spirited the next day.''

- Tim Guidera

INSIDE

Learn how the Blue Jacket players grew closer, a common occurrence during a football camp, after a usually upsetting event: a theft of their belongings from the gym. 7B